F I R E
by MeBeKiki
Summary: It's amazing how one echidna can change everything. After Knuckles agrees to spend time with Sonic and the entire crew, the emotions of various characters reach all time highs... And passionate encounters become somewhat of a social norm. {SonAmySalKnuxRougeShad}; (I know. Yikes.)


_F I R E_

"Hello, Knuckles!" A sugary sweet and high pitched voice sang loudly.

The crimson guardian, who had been napping peacefully on the altar, jolted upright. The first thing his violet eyes saw was a pink hedgehog clad in a red dress next to a familiar yellow fox. She was holding an invitation. His jaw dropped when he saw the contraption in the background, however.

"Amy, Tails…" He said, a bit glad to see his friends, but too focused on the smoking piece of metal to acknowledge them properly.

Tails laughed nervously, his two tails spinning around distractedly.

"Um, I'll explain that later." He said, biting his lip.

"Why are you two here? Did something happen down on Mobius?"

Amy smiled, little dimples showing up on her cheeks. Knuckles actually found it sort of cute. But he would never tell her that of course.

"Sonic's birthday is coming up!" She squealed, handing him the invitation. "And you're invited! What do you say?"

He looked at the invitation, eyeing it sadly. Even if the blue hedgehog was a bit of a dork and definitely a nuisance, working with him and Tails had been the highlight of the guardian's… well, the highlight of his life basically.

"Amy, I'd love to… but…" He gestured to the large emerald behind him awkwardly.

Her green eyes, which were usually bright with life and happiness, had somewhat darkened. All of a sudden she focused, a concentrated expression eminent on her face, as if she were thinking of someone trustworthy who would be able to watch the emerald while he was gone. He cut off her wishful thinking almost immediately.

"Amy, I can't risk having someone guard this emerald. You remember what happened last time, right? It's better for me to stay up here."

"But Knuckles, you're one of our most precious friends." She stepped forward and grabbed his hand, which was covered by his large mitt, carefully. "And you're so lonely up here." She said softly.

Knuckles blushed, staring at the close contact and when Amy realized how awkward it must have been, she pulled away, looking a little embarrassed herself.

Tails didn't seem to notice.

"Please, Knuckles? It would be awesome to have you over. I mean, Sonic's great and all, but he's been on a chili dog binge lately and y'know…" The fox pinched his nose and waved his other arm around.

Amy smacked him upside the head.

"Ow! W-What was that for?" Tails asked angrily.

"You keep your mouth _shut_!" She scolded him, "_My_ Sonic is perfect and he can eat as he would like to! Besides, I'll be making him a birthday cake and it'll be so delicious, he won't give two flying rings about some stupid chili dogs."

Tails backed away from her fearfully.

"O-Okay Amy, whatever you say."

"Yeah, I think I'll pass." Knuckles said with an aggravated sigh, positioning himself on his altar once more and letting his eyes close slowly.

"No!" Amy said in her whiny voice, that he found himself not minding so much nowadays. "Please, you need to come! I know who can watch the emerald!"

"Who?" He asked impatiently, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Why not Vector and Espio?"

This caught his attention. Knuckles popped one eye open skeptically.

"Huh? Team Chaotix? What about that annoying little bee?"

"Oh, you mean Charmy? He's going to the party because Cream will be there," Amy paused, looking at Tails who looked a bit peeved. She smirked before continuing, "Vector isn't going because Vanilla will be too busy. And Espio… well, he'd rather not. I'm sure he won't be doing anything important, so basically they can watch your emerald and you can come hang out with us for a couple of days!"

"Amy… That's very sweet of you. But watching over the emerald can cause temptation. I know this sounds crazy but I'd feel a lot more comfortable having Charmy watch the emerald because I know he's too tiny to actually carry it off with him. If I do go to this little birthday get together, I would only stay for a day. When is the party anyways?"

Amy smiled, although she looked kind of guilty.

"It's… tomorrow?" She squeaked.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"What? What do you mean it's tomorrow?" He was standing up now, at full attention. "Why didn't you tell me sooner!?" He shrieked.

Amy flinched, "Calm down!" She snapped, even if she was at fault.

"We tried calling you on the cell phone we gave you, but you never answered!"

Knuckles blinked a couple of times, evidently confused. He walked down the stairs to a bush and pulled out a phone that was smashed and barely tied together by some extremely exotic plants.

"…You mean this?" He asked, teeth grit. "I don't even have any service up here! I live on a floating island, how the hell were you supposed to get to me without coming here at the last second?"

"…Using that, of course." Tails said slowly, pointing to the odd ship-looking creation behind them that Knuckles had been internally panicking over. "Amy insisted that I make some sort of space ship so we could come up here."

"Not all of us can fly you know," Amy huffed, crossing her arms and looking at both of them a bit jealously.

"You… you built a space ship for me?" Knuckles asked Amy, with surprise, wonder, and a bit of adoration in his voice all at once.

"_I_ built a space ship for you." Tails interjected, once again oblivious to the romantic undertones of Knuckles and Amy's exchange.

"Thanks guys. I… I think I can try and make it." He said, giving them a smile.

Amy's eyes lit up once more, and it made his heart soar, though he wasn't sure why.

She threw her arms around him excitedly, bouncing up and down against him awkwardly.

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" She pulled away, still oddly ecstatic. "This means so much to us Knuckles. Thank you!" She gave him a peck on the cheek, and turned to Tails, grabbing his arm and pulling him away, chattering in a hushed tone.

He nodded, although he looked a bit lost.

_Poor guy_, Knuckles thought.

"So we'll call Vector tonight and tell him the plan, and maybe if Vanilla gets off work early she can get here too so he'll be motivated to stay… Oh! Oh! Do you think you can build another ship overnight? That would be AWESOME!" She squealed again.

"Um, I guess I could but I wouldn't get any sleep." Tails said sadly.

"Who needs sleep? It's overrated anyways," Amy said before letting out a hearty laugh. "This is going to be great!" She turned around and gave Knuckles a huge grin as they both got into their odd space ship. After a few cranks and complains from Amy about putting on seatbelts, they flew off, their ship and presence becoming a tiny dot before they disappeared completely.

Instinctively his hand flew up to where Amy had kissed him, and it drove him nuts for some strange reason…

* * *

"Please tell me you aren't thinking of actually going to faker's birthday bash." Shadow said, forcing Rouge to look him in the eyes.

The bat simply flashed him a sultry smile, taking the invitation from his hands and twirling it between her polished fingers.

"Come on Shads, it's been way too long since I've seen the Big Blue and our last mission was so successful, we've got all this time off. It's only for one night anyways, and that's tomorrow night. Then," she said as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, "You have me all to yourself." She whispered suggestively. Instantly, their lips were connected in a passionate kiss. Lust, exhilaration, and affection were only a couple of emotions that washed through Rouge as they continued to liplock. Kissing Shadow was always a trip. On the outside he may have seemed brooding and silent, but whenever they had some sort of romantic exchange, he was fueled by passion. And she was loving every second of it.

Finding out that the two finally started dating was a shock to most of their friends – if they could even be called 'friends' – most thought Rouge would actually end up with Knuckles, the stubborn guardian whose life revolved around his stupid rock, but Rouge knew it would never work out between them. Still, she felt her cheeks flame up at the thought of him. She couldn't let Shadow know though, he would most likely let her go as soon as he found out. Sometimes she even wondered if he reciprocated her feelings for him, emotionally. Physically, there was no competition. But if there was no sexual connotation to their relationship, what would it be?

She felt her jumpsuit slipping as he groped her breasts, and she stopped him almost instantly.

"Wait," she said, holding onto both of his arms. Her lips were parted and her boobs were practically spilling out of her already provocative outfit. Her significant other seemed to have trouble keeping his eyes focused on hers.

"Not tonight." Rouge said, and she was sure she heard Shadow sigh, but she knew he respected her, so he simply gave her a good natured smirk.

"Okay." He said nonchalantly, but when he turned she caught the disappointed look in his eyes.

_He does not want me just for sex. _She told herself mentally, but she was having trouble believing her own words. They had been doing the deed frequently, which was something she had initiated… But Shadow was a gentleman. And seducing him was not an easy task. It wasn't that he went out of his way to show distaste for her, they _were_ best friends of course, but he seemed to be uninterested in pursuing her for romantic purposes. Sometimes she would lay down, ensconced in his arms, wondering how she put him under her spell. She remembered taking the time to put on a little extra eye shadow, a different lip gloss, and a little more popping of the hips – all of which were in vain. Ultimately it was being his 'ally,' and the undercover missions in G.U.N., in which they would act as a couple occasionally and exchange meaningless kisses. One day, those kisses weren't meaningless anymore.

She sat down on the couch in her apartment, turning on the TV casually. Thoughts of various things that didn't seem quite connected began to run through her mind. She had no idea of what Shadow felt for her exactly, she could only hope he wasn't patronizing her for sexual gratification. When he sat next to her on the couch however, zipping up her jumpsuit for her and scooping her into his arms, all doubt washed away. He gave her a crooked smile, a truly rare and beautiful sight, and kissed her neck slowly and softly. When he pulled away, a love mark was there as proof.

"I know you love to cuddle." He said as she buried her head into his chest. "If that's all you want to do tonight, then I respect that." He said, and she just knew with all sincerity and purity, that he was a keeper.

* * *

**A/N: Well, hello there Sonic fandom. Long time no see. It's been awhile, but I'm glad to say that I am back and writing once more. This idea practically punched me in the face since I've been rereading my favorite Sonic fanfictions, and well, I had to write this. If you've ever read any of my other stories, you'll know that they are essentially complex love stories with drama, sexual tension, and cliché sappy moments between a bunch of different characters. This chapter barely pushed 1800+ words, and I'm hoping later chapters will be a lot lengthier because this project will probably be little more than 10 chapters. So please enjoy what you've been gifted with people. C; Okay, I just want to make a couple of things clear before I start to dive into plots and subplots and whatnot. So let's do some basic information…  
WARNING: There are love triangles. When I say this, I mean, there are LOVE TRIANGLES. Whether you've realized it or not, you've already been introduced to two of them. So far we have: KnuxAmySonic, KnuxAmyRouge, ShadRougeKnux (or whatever you call that), there will also be SonAmySal, possible SonAmyShad, and Tails/Cream/Charmy (I just gave up on the ship name okay.) xD Rather than mashing up some of the triangles, I'll just keep them separated like this so you can differentiate. With that said, I know which pairings are going to be endgame.  
A bit more about characters: Ages, of course, are different. Take the characters' canon ages and add 2. That's basically it. Now, I need to make the relationships between the characters very clear, because it is irksome to see the way other people usually write off the characters. AMY AND ROUGE ARE NOT FRIENDS. They will have a rivalry, and not just because of the triangles. I don't know, it's such a huge turnoff when you find a promising fanfiction and see Rouge and Amy as friends. Because they aren't friends. They're rivals. It just bothers me, I don't know why. There is KnuxRougeShad, but I'm going to avoid character bashing as much as I can. Another HUGE turnoff is reading a Knuckles/Rouge fanfic and seeing Shadow being bashed, and vice versa. I LOVE KnuxRouge and Shadouge equally, so I am not going to take the cliché route of Shadow being 'too dark' for Rouge, or Knuckles being 'abusive' towards Rouge – I find these clichés in lots of fanfics and it honestly disturbs me in a way (although there will be cliches). I know this is a long author's note but I felt like I needed to put all of this down. I am aware that Shadow is OOC, Knuckles too, in the next chapter you will see his hotheadedness. Okay. That's all folks!**


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